384
with maps and plates, of his Mineralogical Description
of Scotland. This he intended to be only the
beginning of a series that should have comprised
geological accounts of all the counties of Scotland.
But from this highly useful purpose he was prevented
by the cares of attending to the university museum,
the publication of a System of Mineralogy, and
a volume on the Characters of Minerals. In 1808
he founded at Edinburgh the Wernerian Natural
History Society. Hitherto the Huttonian doctrines
had prevailed, while those of the Wernerian school
were comparatively unknown, until in 1809 Professor
Jameson published his Elements of Geognosy, by which
Wernerianism was promulgated, and converts made
to its theory among the scientific inquirers both of
Scotland and England. The establishment of such
a society, which was regarded as an intrusion, and its
doctrines, which were opposed as downright heresies,
roused the indignation of the Huttonians, who had
hitherto held possession of the field, and under the
distinctive titles of Plutonists and Neptunians, or
Huttonists and Wernerians, the rival parties com-
menced a war against each other which was carried
on with almost theological intensity. The strife
indeed has passed away, and even the combatants
are asking each other why they fought so fiercely; but
some such commotion was needed to quicken the
researches of the scientific, and drive them into
practical research instead of theory and hypothesis,
while science itself has been amplified and improved
by the interest which the battle had kindled. Of the
Wernerian Society which he founded in Edinburgh,
Professor Jameson was elected perpetual president,
and to the seven volumes of its Transactions which
have been published he was a frequent contributor.
The Travels of Baron Leopold Von Buch through
Norway and Lapland during the years 1806-7-8
having been published in one volume quarto, Pro-
fessor Jameson was so thoroughly impressed by the
scientific merits of the work, that he suggested a
translation of it for the press; and this being done,
he enriched the English version with an account of
its author the distinguished traveller and geologist,
and several notes illustrative of the natural history of
Norway. It was the professor's intention that this
should form one of a series of translations, chiefly
from the German, of the travels of scientific men,
who, like Von Buch, had described the appearance
and geological structure of the countries they visited,
as well as given an attractive account of their animal
and vegetable productions, and the manners and
customs of their inhabitants.
In 1816 another edition of his System of Miner-
alogy appeared in three volumes, and during its day
was the most complete work on the subject. About
the same period a new edition of his Characters of
Minerals was published, and only two years after-
wards (1820), so great was the demand for these
works, that fresh editions of both were prepared
and issued from the press. In 1821 he published a
Manual of Minerals and Mountain Rocks. This
was reckoned by scientific judges the best text-book
of its time, and so great was the demand for it that
1500 copies were sold in the course of a few months.
A still more strenuous task for the improvement
and diffusion of scientific knowledge was undertaken
by Professor Jameson. He had planned in con-
junction with Dr. (afterwards Sir David) Brewster the
Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, and in 1819 the
publication of the series commenced, which at Jame-
son's death, had extended to seventy volumes. For
the first six years he edited the work in conjunction
with Sir David, but afterwards was sole editor until
the close of his life. Speaking of this work in 1854,
the biographer of Jameson adds, "It is, we believe,
admitted to be the most valuable repository of
scientific information in Britain for the period of its
existence. The earlier volumes contain not a few
contributions from himself; and besides numerous
original articles from other hands, the journal com-
prehends translations of memoirs from the French,
German, Italian, and Swedish languages, with many
communications from foreign correspondents on all
the branches of natural history. It will form one
of the most durable monuments of his talents and
industry." Our ideas of his industry and enthusiastic
zeal for science are enhanced by our knowledge of
the fact, that during this busy life of authorship,
he was diligently performing the duties of his pro-
fessorial office, and giving two courses of lectures
annually, the one in summer and the other in
winter.
Although we have mentioned the principal writings
of Professor Jameson, there were many others with
which he was connected, editorially or otherwise,
which were enlarged or illustrated by his pen. This
was especially the case with Cuvier's celebrated
Discourse on the Theory of the Earth, which was
translated into English and published by Mr. Kerr
in 1813—a translation which ran through five edi-
tions, and made Cuvier familiar to the British public,
who until now had known little of this eminent
scientific Frenchman. This translation Jameson
entirely remodelled in the fifth edition, and so en-
tirely, that it was extended from 190 to 550 pages.
"The notes I have added," he modestly says in
the preface, "will, I trust, be found interesting; and
the account of Cuvier's geological discoveries, which
accompanies them, will be useful to those who have
not an opportunity of consulting the great work."
Another demand was made upon Jameson by Captain
Parry, on the return of the latter from his Polar
expedition; and the professor on this occasion drew
up, from the specimens brought home, a sketch
of the geology of the different coasts discovered
and touched upon, which was published in Parry's
narrative of the voyage. Besides this, he drew up
for the Cabinet Library an account of the geology
of those Arctic regions which Captain Parry had
visited. He wrote excellent articles on the physical
geography of Africa and India, which were published
in the Edinburgh Cabinet Library. He also revised
and arranged in a scientific manner a new edition
which was published of Wilson's American Ornith-
ology in four volumes, making it suitable for a text-
book in our universities and schools. Among the
detached articles which he wrote at different periods
for the Scottish encyclopaedias, may be mentioned
those entitled "Adelfors," "Ailsa," "Alabaster,"
"Altai," "Alleghany Mountains," "Amber," "Am-
bergris," "Ammoniac," "Ammonites," "Amphibia,"
"Amphibious," "Arran," "Diamond," "Hartz,"
and "Mineralogy," which appeared in the Edinburgh
Encyclopedia — and the articles "Mineralogy,"
"Geology," and "Organic Remains," which were
published in the Encyclopedia Britannica, when
edited by Macvey Napier. Reverting again from his
works in authorship, to the effects of his teaching, the
pupils of Jameson were such as few professors could
boast of. Of these his biographer has enumerated
nineteen who rose to the highest eminence in the
sciences which he taught, and of each of whom he
might say, as Ulysses does of Achilles—
" Injecique manum, fortemque ad fortia misi:
Ergo opera illius, mea sunk"
The following testimony to his teaching and its
effects, was given by Professor Edward Forbes, his
scholar, and afterwards his distinguished successor;—